


The biggest surprise in MLB over the first six weeks of the season has been the Texas Rangers.
Texas sits atop the loaded AL West heading into Friday.
The A’s are also in the AL West.
That’s about the nicest thing we can say right now about an Oakland team that comes into this matchup with the worst record in baseball.
A couple of lefties will battle it out on Friday night.
(9:40 p.m. ET)
Martin Perez (4-1, 3.86 ERA) will go for Texas, while the A’s turn to youngster Ken Waldichuk (1-2, 7.25 ERA).
Perez is coming off by far his worst start of the season where he allowed eight hits and seven runs against the Angels in 3 ²/₃ innings.
Before that poor outing, Perez hadn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his first six starts.
Waldichuk will be making just his 15th career start.
He’s allowed at least four runs in four of his seven starts in 2023, and now faces a Rangers offense that crushes lefties (hitting .271 and averaging just under seven runs per nine innings).
The A’s have been awful at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, sporting a MLB-worst 3-15 record at home heading into Thursday.
Don’t look for that to change with Waldichuk facing a dangerous Rangers lineup.
Rangers -1.5 (-120, FanDuel)